Apple is under siege. Samsung is moving from strength to strength with every new version of its flagship Galaxy phones and this year is likely to be no exception, with the S5 on the horizon. What started out as a poor alternative to the iPhone is quickly becoming a powerful adversary; Samsung is quickly matching or outpacing features on the iPhone, desperate to keep up in the race, to make sure that it can always be directly compared to Apple’s flagship. Not only does Samsung directly target Apple, it’s also got the most popular Android based handset and most of…

Korea’s biggest mobile carrier SK Telecom has jumped the gun and made Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S5, available for sale right now — nearly two weeks earlier than the scheduled global rollout date of April 11, the Korea Herald reports. A Samsung spokesperson tells TNW that SK Telecom didn’t seek permission for the Galaxy S5′s early launch: The official global launch date of the Galaxy S5 is April 11, as previously announced. Samsung has provided mobile carriers with a limited number of units for marketing and pre-sales activities, however the decision to release the device early in the Korean market…

Samsung unveiled the Galaxy Core Advance in December of last year and, true to its word, the company is launching the budget 3G device this week. The phone goes on sale in Korea tomorrow (February 18) priced at 410,300 won, which is just under $ 390 — there’s no word on when it will make it overseas.

To recap the high-end points, the Galaxy Core sports a 4.7-inch screen and comes with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean and physical keys. As we wrote when it was first announced, there’s not an awful lot to get excited about here — it is very much a lower-end version of the Galaxy S3, complete with a cheaper price tag.

Given that there is no support for LTE networks — an absolute must in Korea, let alone the West — we expect it to be focused very much on emerging market consumers; we’ve reached out to Samsung for details of when it will go on sale outside of Korea, and at what price. Either way, with Mobile World Congress next week, you’d do better to wait on new devices being announced and discounts for older models than buy this phone.

To recap, the Galaxy Core advance is powered by a dual-core 1.2 GHz processor and comes with 1GB RAM, 8GB of internal memory, and a microSD card slot that can accommodate up to 64GB more storage.

The rear-facing camera clocks in at five megapixels, with a 2,000 mAh battery keeping things going. The usual Samsung services are on tap, including S Voice, S Translator, Sound & Shot, Group Play and Easy Mode — while there’s support for NFC (S Beam), Bluetooth 4.0, GPS with GLONASS, and three physical keys.